Rough cost for a CNC router

[ngwagwa]

I make wooden fishing lures using a template and a router and I can profile and round over both sides in a couple of minutes and don't think it would be faster by CNC. There's a video here showing how I make them, may give you some ideas? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3SsZSE...ature=youtu.be

[JAZZCNC]

I make wooden fishing lures using a template and a router and I can profile and round over both sides in a couple of minutes and don't think it would be faster by CNC. There's a video here showing how I make them, may give you some ideas? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3SsZSE...ature=youtu.be

Oh, you've got a happy shock coming when you get your machine working. I could have 6 in the time it took you to do that 1 in the video...Lol

[Boyan Silyavski]

Oh, you've got a happy shock coming when you get your machine working. I could have 6 in the time it took you to do that 1 in the video...Lol

I was going to say that. From that chunk of wood and 2 dowel pins i can 3d machine like 20 at once for half a day, ready to sand with 120 grit. People just don't get what a tremendous upgrade is a simple vacuum fixture or ATC on a CNC, not to speak of a whole CNC.


I am a big fan of "Push the START button and leave the area" and come back after the job is done. Robot comes from Cyrillic and means SLAVE in my language. So is the origin of the word Worker , but that's another matter.


If the machine is not wider than 50cm 1 ball screw will be ok. Probably even wider as 60-70cm will be ok, if you don't use it for heavy duty jobs like aluminum. The great decision will be about the Z travel. Do you make it 150mm for normal wood work or 300 for special jobs, now that you are there and will not cost so much.

Price will be very dependent on the linear bearings and if you can weld save from aluminum structure.


I see a machine like this so:

Base frame table made from steel box. On top of box bolted the square rails 20 size and shimmed, so save 200 from epoxy. 1 ball screw, servo driven and rotating screw. Mounted directly on bottom of table. So you see, steel box table must be strong as has to be one piece and the screw to pass beneath and rotating nut to attach to both sides,
but thats cheap, steel is cheap. a couple of 100x100x3mm for the bed. forming a ladder for simplicity. wood or MDF on top.


It could be done cheap but many decisions has to be made. I think that for 2k could be done. Having in mind that for a proper 90x60machine there are 3k in parts or more.



PS. 2 extra bearing blocks that are next to nothing so the bed has 3 long bearing blocks each side positioned correctly / not in the middle, rather reinforcing each side end will help for a no problem 60-70cm width. I have never seen something like that but just came to my mind and i am sure will work fabulously. saving cost of driversm motors, rotating nuts and so

[m_c]

I make wooden fishing lures using a template and a router and I can profile and round over both sides in a couple of minutes and don't think it would be faster by CNC. There's a video here showing how I make them, may give you some ideas? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3SsZSE...ature=youtu.be

Interesting video.
If I could get the total time down to 10-15minutes per handle, I'd be happy, but it's just time consuming.
Screw the template on, and doing the trim on the bandsaw I estimated takes 5 minutes minimum.
Then profiling to the template is realistically 5 minutes, as my router table can't take that deep a cut as it's not rigid enough, so takes a bit finessing to avoid too many gouges.
Removing the template then rounding over takes another 5 minutes.
That's 15 minutes already, not including tool changes.
I machined 3 handles today, and it took me nearly an hour, including tool changes and tidying up afterwards (even with a good extractor, the router table throughs a lot on the floor).

Then even if I bought another router and made a jig/sled for thinning the ends, I'd estimate that'll be another 5 minutes.
So that's about 25 minutes per handle, and doesn't include time for sanding the handle to get rid of the ripples from the router table resonating/flexing, which is about 5-10 minutes per handle.

So even with everything as streamlined as possible, that's 30-35 minutes per handle.

If I switch to a CNC table, I guess labour input is likely to be around 5 minutes per handle, including swapping tools/blanks, if I can do 3 or 4 in one setup.
That's a 20 minute saving per handle. Plus there is the option I could probably switch to cut timber and have the router finish the surface, saving money on planed timber.

However, I need to workout if the labour saving will be worth the cost of building the machine.